LOS ANGELES, Calif. – For the second match in a row, No. 6 UC Irvine took the first set only to have Np. 2 UCLA win the next three to take a 3-1 victory (25-20, 22-25, 16-25, 25-27) at Pauley Pavilion Sunday evening.

UCI could not stop the UCLA middles who hit .700 (22-1-30) with just one error. As a team, the Bruins hit .415 (54-10-106), while UCI hit .273 (48-18-110). The Anteaters out-aced (7-4) and out-dug UCLA (34-27) with the Bruins holding a 8-5 advantage in blocks (8-5).

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Sophomore Hilir Henno led the Anteaters with a match-high 17 kills, the eighth double-figure performance of the year. He also added seven digs and two aces
>Opposite Cole Gillis followed with 12 kills and two aces
>Middle blocker Connor Campbell was effective, hitting .875 (7-0-8)
>Outside hitter Francesco Sani had 10 kills, and tied Doug Dahm with a team-high three blocks
>Libero Cole Power had a match-best 10 digs
>Setter Joe Karlous had three kills, 34 set assists and five digs
>The Bruins had a trio of players in double figures led by Merrick McHenry's 15  

FIRST SET
>Joe Karlous wound up for a kill then Hilir Henno added one off the block, 6-4
>UCLA would score three straight, two on blocks to take a 7-6 advantage
>Henno worked his magic from the service line and tied the set at 9-9 on an ace
>A 4-1 run by the Anteaters which included two kills by Cole Gillis pushed UCI out to a 14-12 advantage
>UCU's first block of the match came by way of Francesco Sani and Doug Dahm, 17-14
>Sani drilled it off the block to force a UCLA timeout, 22-18
>Out of the timeout, Gillis fired an ace, 23-18
>A kill by D. Dahm in the middle ended the set 25-19

SECOND SET
>Three in a row by UCLA gave the Bruins the early 3-1 lead
>A UCLA service error, ace by Henno and a UCI block by D. Dahm and Gillis move the Anteaters in front 4-3
>UCLA answered taking seven of eight points and lead 10-5
>The Bruins would stay in control, leading 22-17 before UCI rallied on a 5-1 run to draw within 21-23
>UCLA would go on to win 25-23

THIRD SET
>Following a Sani block, two UCI attack errors gave UCLA the 4-2 lead
>After Campbell tied it at 5-5 with a block, UCLA had three consecutive kills, 8-5
>Back-to-back blocks by UCLA extended the deficit to 8-12
>Gillis would record his second ace to close to 13-17
>The Bruins would take the set, 25-16 as UCI hit .033 (7-6-30)

FOURTH SET
>A kill by Gillis was followed by a solo block by D. Dahm and a Bruin attack error, 4-2
>Three consecutive kills moved the Bruins out to a 9-7 lead
>A UCLA service error and a kill by Henno tied the set at 10-10
>Back-to-back kills by Sani helped UCI to a 12-11 advantage
>Karlous had a dig for a kill in the back corner of the court, 18-17
>A UCLA service error was followed by an ace from D. Dahm to increase the gap to 21-19
>The Bruins scored four of the next five to give UCLA the lead 23-22
>A Bruin kill and UCI attack error would hand UCLA the match, 27-25

NOTES
>UCI was the first to take a game in Pauley, snapping UCLA's 15 straight sets streak at home this season
>UCI is the only team to have taken two sets off the Bruins in 2023
>The Anteaters have had more aces than its opponent 10 times

UP NEXT
UCI will travel to Stanford Saturday (Mar. 3) for a 3:00 p.m. match and quickly return home for a match against Penn State Sunday (Mar. 5) at 5:00 p.m. at the Bren Events Center.